July 16-19: Naxos, Greece

Our hotel in Naxos was great! It was right on the beach and we had an ocean front balcony! I’d like to say we saw the sights and experienced the culture, but there wasn’t much of either, and we were a bit too preoccupied reading on the beach. Each day we went out a bit early to ensure that we would get a lounger and an umbrella; our first day we arrived a bit late and were stuck sizzling in the sun all day. Very uncomfortable. Although the beach was busy, it was lovely. It was a smooth white sand beach, and was on St. George’s Bay. The water stayed knee-deep for quite a ways out, and the waves were very, very small. After sunning all day and eating 2 euro gyros for lunch, we would wander into the town at night, and find a good place for dinner. It was a very relaxing time.


Ouzo

View from our balcony

We did, however, have a disturbance one day. The lounge chairs on the beach are owned by different bars or restaurants. They rent them for 4 euro each. The place we rented from also had a very nice British server if you wanted to order anything from the bar. It was of course horribly overpriced, so we went across the street to a market to get a couple beers (which were a quarter of the price of the ones at the bar), a bucket, and some ice. The British girl had said it was no problem and a good idea; she understood our lack of money, and even felt guilty asking for the money for our loungers! Anyway, we came back and began enjoying our beers on the beach with our books and the umbrella. It was very nice. Then some guy came up to us, told us he worked at the bar, and said we weren’t allowed to have anything from the market with us. We were pretty peeved about this for several reasons. Firstly, no one told us this. Secondly, did they really expect people to buy everything they wanted throughout the day from this bar? We had a deal, and that was to rent the loungers from them, not to have to buy water from them or else die of thirst. The guy said he was sorry, but that the bar would give us our money back and we would have to leave. He told him we wanted to stay, and that we would just put the beers away. He didn’t seem to understand, and said that now everyone else had seen our beers and gotten the same idea. It was a ludicrous suggestion, as everyone else already had bottles of water or soda, bags of chips, whatever, all from the market. In any event, he let us stay and we just had to put the beers in our room. Such a pain, since we had just paid for everything!




Most famous site in Naxos

This one minor irritation aside, Naxos was a fabulous time, and a much needed rest after running around sightseeing all day for the previous two months. It was very relaxing to not have to do anything but lie around all day in a beautiful environment. Highly recommended!